A FATHER returned to the Falkland Islands for the first time in five decades to celebrate the 50th birthday of the baby son born to him out there.

Don Smith, 72, of Leighton Green, Westbury, set out for the Falkland Islands in February 1951, yearning for adventure and a break from the bleak outlook of his life working on a farm in Wiltshire.

In his 20s he spent more than five years living the gruelling life of a Falkland Islands shepherd, looking after 12,000 sheep, as well as cattle and horses.

He met Rhona and they had a son, Alistair, together but Mr Smith's work contract finished and he left the Falkland Islands when Alistair was just a year old. Now he has returned to the island for the first time, on the year of his son's 50th birthday.

He said: "By the time I left his mother had already married. It hit me below the belt for a while but I thought after a while this is going to turn out okay.

"Rhona seemed to be fine and Ali was being well looked after. I had mixed feelings. I wanted to come home and see my folks again but I wanted to do the right thing by Rhona and the baby. As it happened it just could not have worked out better. We have become two families in one really."

Alistair grew up in the Falkland Islands and the pair met when Alistair was 17 and came to the UK to go to college. He asked to meet his father and Mr Smith got a phone call out of the blue from Rhona.

Since then the two families have been close. Mr Smith also married and has two other children with his wife Audrey. Mr Smith said he was given something of a legend's welcome when he returned to the islands earlier this year.

Children came up to him on the street with stories they had heard about his adventures when he lived there as a young man.

He said: "I was given an incredible welcome. I felt almost like royalty.

"The Falklands is in my blood. That time out there was an experience I will never ever forget."

He spent four weeks with his son, who now owns a thriving pub, and three grandchildren, visiting the places he used to work as a shepherd.

He even discovered the skeleton of an ox that had died when he lived there. The head was buried and he dug it up and brought it home, where it now hangs from his sitting room wall.

He said he first made the nine-week trip to the Falklands because he yearned for adventure.

"War had just finished. There was not a lot going on and I couldn't see what I was going to do with my life. I didn't have any money and life here was miserable."

"Then an advert popped up in the Wiltshire Times and it said sheep farmers were wanted in the Falklands."

He took just a few clothes and the equivalent of £3.50 in cash. He worked hard, helping to look after 284,000 sq miles of farmland, including 45,000 sheep, 1,200 horses and nearly 4,000 cattle.

When he returned earlier this year he was overwhelmed by the amount the islands had changed. A large airport had been built and horses had been replaced by motorbikes.